2017 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 189-199
The study of intergenerational transmission of gender role attitudes (GRA) connects those about parenting mechanism of children's value, socialization, challenges of feminism and gender studies to patriarchy. Previous studies of the transmission of GRA between generations focused on the effects of socialization and symbolic interaction on the formation of GRA of children. Attitudes may change with children's own life-course events, such as entering labor market or starting family formation. The current paper studies if socialization at home remains significant predictor of children's GRA and if their life experiences play an important role in their early adulthood. Findings of analyzing panel data from the Taiwan Youth Project show that children are more egalitarian than their parents, female are more so than male, and children in adulthood are more so than in their youth. Parents have strong effects on shaping children's GRA, especially between mother and daughter. The results seem to support the exposure perspective. However, marriage makes adult children more conservative, especially for married men. The results seem to indicate more the acceptance of the reality by married couple than the backlash of egalitarian attitudes. The self-interested perspective is better to explain the changes of GRA in early adulthood of respondents.
